Absent in the Spring

by Agatha Christie Book 3 in the Mary Westmacott series.

First published 1944

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4.3(1,312)

Returning to England from visiting her daughter in Iraq, Joan Scudamore is stranded alone at an isolated desert rest house. With no books, companions or practical distractions, she begins reviewing the marriage and family life she has always regarded as successful.

Memories that once confirmed Joan’s self-image take on a different meaning as she considers her husband’s silences and her children’s choices. The novel replaces external detection with self-investigation, asking whether insight can survive the return to comfort and whether a person who has organised a family around her own certainty is capable of accepting what others have felt.